Due to this response, among the chatter from many others who have been pointing out the gender bias in music for years, Bandsintown and Twitter have joined a group of diverse, electronic music producers and DJs to launch net.werk, a day-long festival on the Bandsintown LIVE channel this Thursday April 16 from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. PST. “We are in an online space where there’s the opportunity to make different choices, yet that hasn’t been happening,” Deahl explained. “So we decided to do something about it. Bandsintown was a natural choice for their ongoing effort to support artists. They immediately expressed support for our values and our vision. Having Twitter pledge support was unexpected and thrilling. It’s amazing to join forces with companies who are as excited as we are about creating space for underrepresented artists.” The net.werk festival will feature a diverse set of gender nonbinary, queer, PoC, and female-identifying DJs and producers. Twitter joined in and will be streaming the sets as well to help drive attention to these amazing performers. All proceeds from the net.werk festival will be donated to the MusiCares COVID Relief Fund. “We believe that intimacy of music livestreaming is a new form of entertainment, but this unprecedented moment of opportunity has not helped all artists equally,” said Fabrice Sergent, Bandsintown’s managing partner.I COMMENTED ON THEIR FLYER ABOUT THIS.. EVEN IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD YALL STILL BOOK NOTHING BUT MEN.. OVER TBH — JERSEY CLUB QUEEN (@UNIIQU3) March 27, 2020
Related article: Bandcamp Waives Revenue Share for All Artists this Friday With the desire to radically implement change in visibility for the queer and female-identifying DJs who often get fewer opportunities and far less exposure in the world of trip-hop, electronic, and dance music, the community-focused event is a way to bring the world’s attention to these talented musicians. Through celebrating diverse artists and showcasing talents all over the world, Bandsintown have amassed more than 725,000 unique viewers to the free, intimate music programming on Bandsintown LIVE’s Twitch channel since its launch three weeks ago. Now, they are shifting focus and bringing in the perspective that’s been missing and providing a platform for the artists who deserve visibility the most. “The group effort is so indicative of how music folks have been coming together to help each other out in these times,” Deahl said. “The whole thing came together in a week. We wanted to show a bang-up collection of artists that just *happened* to include women, artists of color, nonbinary artists, queer artists, in other words, the artists who always put in a huge amount of work and emotional labor to get noticed. This day is a platform for them.”
